Welcome to Wednesday Writers!

Today I’m hosting Gail Kittleson on Wednesday Writers. Gail is a historical romance author, who writes about WWII. Her Women of the Heartland, World War II series, highlights women of The Greatest Generation. Today she’s taking us on a side trip to talk about the first English woman to write a book. You’ll want keep reading, because it’s not who you think it is. Welcome, Gail!

Ancient Treasures

By Gail Kittleson

Preparing for a recent fortieth anniversary trip to England, I re-discovered Julian of Norwich, who died in 1417. Before that, if you’d asked me to name the first English woman who wrote a book, I might have said Jane Austen. But long before Jane left her mark, Julian of Norwich left hers.

Julian became well known in England, and people flocked to her cell for spiritual advice. She was called “Renewer of the Church.” Her meditations, The Revelations of Divine Love, set forth eternal, all-embracing divine love.

Well known in England during this era of widespread epidemics, people looked to Julian for reassurance. Many monks taught that disease signified God’s angry punishment, while Julian wrote of a loving, even motherly God intent on creation’s good.

She viewed the Creator of all with a tiny object in his hand, like a small brown nut, so fragile and insignificant that she wondered why it even held together. The nut stood for the entire created universe, yet Julian heard this message with her vision: “God made it, God loves it, and God keeps it.”

She wrestled with the difficult moral decisions humans face. Sometimes we feel that no matter what, we act from impure motives, and can defend no decision. Finally, Julian concluded: “It is enough to be sure of the deed. Our courteous Lord will deign to redeem the motive.”

I’d guess the monks of Julian’s day weren’t exactly delighted with her theology—human nature conjures images of the Divine patterned after our own shortcomings. Negativity surely fits that label, as does a tendency to feel hopelessly incapable of acting with wisdom in this world.

As writers, we can certainly identify. But common people resonated to Julian’s perspective from the cell where she confined herself after undergoing a burial rite to signify her death to this world.

How wonderful to come to a point where with her, we say, “It is enough to do something (i.e., to write), led by my best instincts and thinking process. If I err, I fall upon the courtesy of our Lord.”

About the Author:

Gail taught college writing before becoming a late-blooming novelist, and now has four published novels celebrating WWII women, and a memoir.

When Gail’s not steeped in research, drafting scenes, or editing, she facilitates writing workshops and retreats in Iowa and Arizona, where winters find her enjoying the gorgeous Mogollon Rim. Favorites: grandchildren, exploring WWII sites with her husband, walking, reading, meeting new people, and hearing from readers who fall in love with her characters.

Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing gardens—aka their books. Today’s Guest is GAil Kittleson with a question for all you veggie gardeners out there. Welcome back, Gail!

Treasures in Our Cellar

By Gail Kittleson

After being gone for several months, I ventured into the gloom of our old-fashioned (a kind way of putting it) basement, a.k.a. cellar the other day. Certainly not a “finished” lower level, its limestone foundation has been added onto more than once.

I’ve forgotten what we were looking for, but here’s one item we found:

Yep, potatoes sprouted to kingdom come, and that was before we meandered further into the bowels of the cavern. For in an even darker room with windows at all, we found—voila!

These hungry-for-light specimens made the first two pails full look like youngsters. Our granddaughter, curious and scientific-minded student, exclaimed over these sprouts’ spectacular growth, and tweaked my imagination in the process. What IS it in a potato that seeks light so voraciously?

Onward to practical matters—shall we dig holes three and a half feet deep to plant our crop this year? But from the looks of the frozen landscape outdoors, that won’t be for at least two more weeks…definitely NOT the year to observe the old wives’ tale, “plant potatoes by Good Friday.” Not in Northern Iowa. Not in 2018.

So what would you gardeners do with these eager-to-grow survivors? We can still cook some of the veggies, however wizened they may appear. But should we snip off these sprouts at the usual length of a few inches? Will they still produce a crop?

About the Gardener/Writer

Iowa born and bred, Gail spends the worst of winter in the Arizona mountains, where she and another author/college writing instructor facilitate a writers’ retreat. Iowa’s seasonal changes and growing grandchildren keep Gail and her husband active. This year, to celebrate their fortieth anniversary, they’re heading to England to tour WWII sites and add novel fodder to Gail’s Forties’ Women’s Fiction.

You can find Gail at her website and on Facebook, Twitter and Amazon Author Central.

Women of the Heartland Series

by Gail Kittleson

From Book 1: Pearl Harbor attacked! The United States is at war. But Addie fights her own battles on the Iowa home front. Her controlling husband Harold vents his rage on her when his father’s stroke prevents him from joining the military. He degrades Addie, ridicules her productive victory garden, and even labels her childlessness as God’s punishment.

When he manipulates his way into a military unit bound for Normandy, Addie learns that her best friend Kate’s pilot husband has died on a mission, leaving her stranded in London in desperate straits. Will Addie be able to help Kate, and find courage to trust God with her future?

I’m welcoming back Gail Kittleson to the blog today. Gail will be talking about the emotional state of the secret agent heroine of her books A Purpose True and With Each New Dawn, set in the tumultuous time of World War II.

A Secret Agent’s Inner Life

On the outside, Kate Isaacs, the heroine of A Purpose True and With Each New Dawn, strikes us as an inveterate risk-taker, a woman able to do anything. She wastes no time pondering proposed actions—she’s too busy doing something! At first glance, she wastes not a moment watching life pass her by, and we applaud her “go for it” attitude.

People are drawn to this sharp-witted, well-read young woman. She eloped with her husband straight out of high school, followed him to London after his Royal Air Force plane was downed, and searched for him far and wide. Nothing can stop her.

But I caught her in one of her quieter moments and posed a simple question. “If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?” Her immediate response revealed a vast, yawning hunger in her soul.

“I’d have a normal childhood, with my mother and father alive and well.”

Ah…when I was writing Kate’s story, the old spiritual, “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child…” never entered my mind. But looking back, it’s clear that the huge hole in Kate’s emotional being helped shape her into the adult she’s become.

Her mentor back in London warned her that waiting for an assignment would trouble her, and her sojourn as a secret agent in Southern France provided plenty of solitary times. During those periods when she had little control over anything, her mother’s face appeared from photos Kate had seen, and the reader finds her carrying on a conversation with this woman who gave her birth and died during Kate’s early childhood.

Kate may seem independent and in charge, but the look in her eyes tells another story. When all is said and done, when she’s avoided the Gestapo again in a heart-pounding near-disaster, when she’s all alone in an isolated cave and the future seems so tenuous, this mother hunger rises from a place deep within.

But it’s World War II, and no therapist or support groups exist. Kate’s role often demands solitude. In these honest moments when her hunger envelops her, she confronts her great need. She speaks with her mother…declares her longings out loud. And sometimes, in a way she finds difficult to verbalize, she senses her mother near.

Each confrontation of her deepest fears increases her breathing space a tiny bit more. As she risks her life for the freedom of la France, her own freedom grows, as well. This universal premise rings true for us all—facing our fears, though it’s terrifying, strengthens us in ways we could never have imagined.

About the Author:

Forever intrigued by the writing process, Gail researches ongoing World War II projects, including a co-written cozy mystery. She enjoys time with grandchildren, walking, and reading. Winters find her hiking with her husband under Arizona’s Mogollon Rim. She loves hearing from readers and facilitating writing workshops.

Today’s A Writer’s Garden guest is Gail Kittleson who is delighting us with pictures and uses for herbs. I can almost smell them now. Welcome, Gail.

Thanks, Catherine. This year, our garden produced an abundance of herbs…thyme, oregano, sage … well, you know the list.

Here it is, October already, and I’m still taking in some of the beauty through my sense of smell. Yes, peppermint still regales me, in the form of dried, crushed leaves for tea. I’ve been known to add some of the flowers, as well.

Recently, I discovered the pleasure of an evening cup of parsley tea. I’d heard that this garnish also served as a mouth deodorizer, but tea? Yes! Nothing better, imho, than a hot cup after dinner.

Here’s the plant (Italian parsley) in all its glory last summer. Now, I’ve brought it inside and keep making this mellow brew.

And then there’s rosemary. I love that it’s for healing … when the world’s harshness seems over the top, there’s rosemary to shave into your baked sweet potato. With butter—lots of it.

Our glorious summer gardens can accompany us into winter’s starkness, even if we live in the frozen hinterlands. Here’s to hot tea and curling up with a wonderful book on a wintry day.

About the Gardener /Writer:

Gardener/writer Gail Kittleson has been gardening just about everywhere she and her husband have lived, including Senegal, West Africa. Her favorite thing about gardening is the survival of plants over harsh Iowa winters, the anticipation of new growth, and eating fresh salads. When she’s not gardening she’s writing memoir and women’s historical fiction novels and teaching a creative writing class. Gail writes from northern Iowa, where she and her husband enjoy gardening and grandchildren. In winter, Arizona’s Ponderosa pine forests provide relief from Midwest weather and a whole raft of new people and stories. Gail’s memoir, Catching Up With Daylight, paved the way for fiction writing, and her debut women’s fiction novel, In This Together (Wild Rose Press/Vintage Line) was released on November 18, 2015.Since then she’s completed two more books in her WWII romance series. You can learn more about her at http://www.gailkittleson.com/.

A Purpose True, the sequel to With Each New Dawn, reveals Kate and Domingo risking life and limb in French Resistance efforts to stymie the Nazi advance to Normandy. But even their fierce devotion to liberty cannot preclude questions raised by the enemy’s cruelty. How is faith to survive in the midst of relentless Nazi atrocities toward innocent citizens? Can the power of love withstand the worst of evil and forge positive paths for the future?

Today I’m welcoming Gail Kittleson back to Wednesday Writers. Gail, who has been a guest on several of my blog series, is the author of The Women of the Heartland series. Gail likes to write about not-too-distant bygone eras, specifically WWII. Today she’ll be talking about the roots of her just released book, Each New Dawn. By the way, Gail, I love each one of your covers with their WWII flavor.

Thanks, Catherine.

We don’t often reflect on the forces molding our childhood experiences until much later in life. Here I am in my sixties, finally considering how much World War II affected my parents, and therefore, my siblings and me.

The Women of The Heartland Series, I realize now, found its roots in my parents’ moorings. Dad served four years in the war, and Mom anxiously awaited her two brothers’ return from the infantry. Her barefoot singing in the kitchen surrounded us as children, and what did she sing? World War II tunes, of course. There’ll be bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover …Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy diveyA kiddley divey too, wooden shoe … I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places … I’ll be with you in apple blossom time …

So when the heroines of In Times Like These and With Each New Dawn, came to me, those songs danced in my memory bank. Not consciously, of course. Actually, I didn’t “get it” until someone at a book signing asked, “So, did you pattern your heroines after anyone?”

“Nope,” I blithely stated. But then I had a flash about how much certain characters resemble my mother, a hard working, mid-western make-do woman from humble circumstances. So I backtracked and shared the epiphany.

Katherine Anne Porter wrote, “The past is never where you think you left it.”

Ah, isn’t that the truth? We’re products of our past, and orphan Kate Isaacs, the heroine of With Each New Dawn, proves this point. Her longing for information about her parents drives her right into danger.

With Each New Dawn

By Gail Kittleson

In war-torn London, American Kate Isaacs grieves her husband, awaits their child’s birth, and welcomes her best friend Addie. But after her miscarriage, another meeting with mysterious Monsieur le Blanc launches her into Britain’s Secret Operations Executive(SOE). In late 1943, Kate parachutes into Southern France to aid the Resistance.

Domingo, a grieving Basque mountain guide-turned-saboteur, meets her parachute drop, tends her injured ankle, and carries her to safety. Reunited a few months later, they discover the injured Monsieur le Blanc who, with his dying breath, reveals a secret that changes Kate’s life.

In the shadow of the Waffen SS, Domingo’s younger brother Gabirel is missing. While Domingo seeks Gabirel, Domingo’s parish priest, Père Gaspard, creates a new identity for Kate.

As Kate and Domingo subject their mutual attraction to the cause of freedom, can mere human will and moral courage change the war’s tide and forge a future for them?

Wednesday Writers’ guest today is author Gail Kittleson. Gail writes women’s historical fiction and will be highlighting her book In Times Like These, a story of spousal abuse during World War II, on today’s blog. Welcome back, Gail.

Words and War

The Iowa countryside makes a perfect setting for Addie Bledsoe’s story. At the beginning, fierce winter storms coat the farmstead with ice, just as bitterness envelops her volatile husband Harold. Furious with the draft board for refusing to allow him to join the fight, he takes his rage out on Addie. The terror that stokes worldwide battles has a local name, and that name is Harold.

But gradually, spring thaws the frozen plains, igniting dreams of brighter days ahead. There’s nothing like bitter cold transforming into warming winds, nothing like seeing that first robin and being able to get one’s hands into the soil again.

Like spring, letters from Addie’s friend Kate in London help her navigate the long winter, and Jane, her gardening friend just down the gravel road, cheers her, too. When Harold’s father dies, no one is more surprised than Addie to witness her mother-in-law emerge from grief with a taste for joy.

Summer brings heartfelt relief, since Harold is so preoccupied with the crops and livestock. But thunderclouds envelop the farm from time to time, even felling an old maple in the yard. Addie is never free from her husband’s brooding nature, and when he lashes out, she unwittingly reinforces his behavior by believing his accusations. Surely, there must be a way she can change to make him happy.

Like George the mailman’s deliveries of Kate’s letters, autumn provides relief from summer’s heat and humidity, and a sudden surprise lightens Addie’s load. Their pastor becomes an army chaplain, and with so many joining up, the local church calls Harold, a self-made theologian and debate champion, to fill in. Then an unparalleled opportunity arises for him to receive seminary training from December through March. Imagine Addie’s relief at this unexpected reprieve!

But as harsh winds funnel east from the Dakotas, Kate’s RAF pilot husband goes missing in action. Within weeks, Kate’s situation turns from fearsome to sorrowful to desperate.

Like the solid, fertile land under her feet, Addie’s growing friendships with her mother-in-law and Jane nurture her faith. Even caregiving a dying World War I veteran (a task Harold foists upon her) reveals a silver lining.

***

The land, the seasons, and the war’s effect on quiet Iowa farm families . . . blending these together challenged me. I’m not sure I was always aware of the interplay of military battles and Addie’s ever-heightening tension. But I do love metaphors, and it’s so satisfying to see how this one works.

In Times Like These

By Gail Kittleson

Pearl Harbor attacked! The United States is at war.

But Addie fights her own battles on the Iowa home front. Her controlling husband Harold vents his rage on her when his father’s stoke prevents him from joining the military. He degrades Addie, ridicules her productive victory garden, and even labels her childlessness as God’s punishment.

When he manipulates his way into a military unit bound for Normandy, Addie learns that her best friend Kate’s pilot husband has died on a mission, leaving her stranded in London in desperate straits.

Will Addie be able to help Kate, and find courage to trust God with her future?

This extraordinary story classically captures the mindset of the 1940’s. Addie and her friend Kate reflect the voices women hear as they face confusing dilemmas almost seventy-five years later—my first read kept me up into the wee hours. I will refer my readers to In Times Like These! Patricia Evans, Author of The Verbally Abusive Relationship, Controlling People and other books listed at www.VerbalAbuse.com

About the Author:

Gail Kittleson lives in Northern Iowa with her husband of 38 years. In winter, Arizona’s Ponderosa pine forest provides another setting for her historical women’s fiction. She instructs creative writing classes and facilitates women’s workshops on spirituality, creativity, and memoir/fiction writing.

Inside, my Christmas cactus is up to its second-time-around Easter blooming.

I’ve never been a big fan of kalanchoes, but this particular plant blooms twice a year, and its tiny, cheery blossoms are winning my heart. I move both cactus and kalanchoe outdoors in summer.

Every day now, even if the wind’s blowing like crazy and the thermometer says otherwise, we know Spring is here . . . in spirit, at least. Something like knowing your age, but not acting like it, or feeling young in spite of your birth date.

The row of lilacs I planted about twelve years ago from my mother-in-law’s starts, originated before the turn of the century, with her grandmother. Such history, even in simple plants. Lilacs seem simple to me, embellishing Spring with their gifts, then taking a back seat the rest of the season.

Their blooms may not last as long as day lilies or petunias, spanning nearly the whole summer. But who could forget lilacs’ intoxicating, heady aroma? In a nearby alley, I slow my steps to sniff the rich dark purple flowers. Positively lush!

Obviously, the photo for this scene lives only in my head. Guess it’s clear—I’m all undone by Spring!

About the Author:

Gardener/writer Gail Kittleson has been gardening just about everywhere she and her husband have lived, including Senegal, West Africa. Her favorite thing about gardening is the survival of plants over harsh Iowa winters, the anticipation of new growth, and eating fresh salads. When she’s not gardening she’s writing memoir and women’s historical fiction novels and teaching a creative writing class. Gail writes from northern Iowa, where she and her husband enjoy gardening and grandchildren. In winter, Arizona’s Ponderosa pine forests provide relief from Midwest weather and a whole raft of new people and stories.

Gail’s memoir, Catching Up With Daylight, paved the way for fiction writing, and her debut women’s fiction novel, In This Together (Wild Rose Press/Vintage Line) was released on November 18, 2015.You can learn more about her at http://www.gailkittleson.com.

Getting to the Heart of Quilting

by Gail Kittleson

Quilts speak comfort to me, though my creative gifts definitely lie elsewhere. I’m reworking a novel right now, and my heroine’s mother sent a hand-stitched quilt with her on the Oregon Trail. Meta, from a rural Iowa German community, commits herself to Garrit, ten years her senior, and his Wyoming Territory dreams.

In their wagon train, Meta meets a wonderful new friend headed for The Dalles, Oregon, and together they face unspeakable loss on the trail. In the lavender-scented folds of her mother’s quilt, my heroine finds comfort.

The pattern? Tulips in a Basket—what a cherished gift. And even more so because her mother used Papa’s trousers to fashion the baskets—Papa, who died when Meta was a little girl.

A few years ago, my husband prepared for his second twelve-month-plus deployment to Iraq, so I decided to do something for myself. A friend offered to make a quilt for cold winter night snuggling, and one day in the fabric store, she taught me the ins-and-outs.

All I wanted was yellow, for cheer, but she said, “You must choose a contrast.” When no other color struck me, and I re-emphasized my longing for yellow, we went with shades and textures. In the end, she liked the results with the Garden Lattice pattern. I edited her memoir in exchange for her quilting, and voila!

Okay, that IS me, with my hair longer and doing its natural thing …

My mother-in-law, nearly ninety, still quilts. I so enjoy her lovely creations—such a lifelong, worthwhile vocation. Although I’ll never create a lovely quilt, I admire them and the patient skill they require.

I wonder, has anyone out there completed a quilt in either of the two patterns mentioned here?

About the Author:

Gail Kittleson has enjoyed quilts for decades, though her sewing skills leave a great deal to be desired. Her favorite thing about quilts is their history and the comfort they bring people, and she uses that aspect in several historical women’s fiction novels. You can learn more about Gail and her debut novel at her website.

Where the Wild Things Grow

About a week ago, I lopped off the Queen Anne’s Lace that grew taller than me this year. Iowa’s great rains this spring and fall made for extraordinary growth in everything from field corn to flowers. But those wonderful thunderstorms we’ve had really laid the Queen Anne’s Lace low…over some other flowers doing their best to thrive an/or make a national growth record, too.

Don’t you love the lace? These delicate “weeds” populate our ditches, but I wanted some as background for my other blossoms this year. I’m thinking next season, they might fit better in the hollyhock bed behind the garage, our alley brighteners.

Right now, I’m in Arizona, where great mountain rains have made for lush growth, also.

My husband spotted a tiny cactus growing out of a crack in the soil. We’ll see if it survives and still holds its place in this world when we return in late December.

When we get home in a couple of weeks, I wonder what the Queen Anne’s Lace will be like…will they have sprouted again, from the six-or-so inches I left above the ground.

As with plants everywhere, we’ll see.

About the Author:

Gardener/writer Gail Kittleson has been gardening just about everywhere she and her husband have lived, including Senegal, West Africa. Her favorite thing about gardening is the survival of plants over harsh Iowa winters, the anticipation of new growth, and eating fresh salads. When she’s not gardening she’s writing memoir and women’s historical fiction novels and teaching a creative writing class. You can learn more about her at http://www.gailkittleson.com

Want to read more about Gail’s gardens? Click here to see her other garden posts.